SAN JOSE, CALIF— Pro Marathoner, Kenyan-born, Kelvin Kiptum has set the marathon world record at 23 years old!

Kiptum ran 2:00:35 for 26.2 miles at the Chicago Marathon on Oct. 8, 2023. This record cements him in history, as he shattered long-distance legend, Eliud Kipchoge’s previous world record 2:01:09, set Sept. 25,2019. That is a 34-second record-breaker!

With Kiptum’s incredible feat, he was the first marathon to officially ever finish faster than 2:01:00. Additionally with running a time as quickly as he did, he ran an average pace of 4:36 per mile! Less than 0.02% of all people can go under 5 minutes per mile, yet Kiptum did this for 26.2 miles without rest!

He crossed the finish line first out of over 45,000 participants. Along with this feat, Kiptumm has also run the fastest debut marathon of all time. This happened in 2022 at the Valencia marathon, running a still very impressive 2:01:53, an average pace of 4:39 per mile. Once again in this marathon, he had finished first, this time out of over 20,000 participants. He was the only athlete to go under 2:03:00.

Vinay Singamsetty, a junior a part of the Silver Creek Highschool Cross Country team weighed in on Kiptum’s success and his ability to be even more successful, ” I believe he [Kiptum] can go sub [under] 1:59:00.” Singamsetty believes Kiptum has got a lot more in the tank and he is far from slowing down.

Although he has had a plentiful amount of success running, Kiptum is still incredibly new to running. He has only run since he was 18, according to tcslondonmarathon.com, “I started running when I finished high school. I wasn’t the best at running when I was in high school … I started running when I was 18.” This was stated at the London Marathon. This just proves the fact anyone and anyone can be successful at running and anyone can pick it up.

Kiptum wasn’t even expecting to run a world record, at the Chicago Marathon, after his stellar performance, he stated, “”I knew I was coming for a course record, but a world record – I am so happy, a world record was not on my mind today, but I knew one day I would be a world record-holder.” Nobody, not even Kiptum himself expected a new record to be run. Kiptum is far from the finish line and definitely has much more in the tank.